Cristiano Ronaldo will leave this Friday with the Portugal team heading to the World Cupa competition that represents the only mountain he has left to climb in a career full of success, both at club level and with his country.
The 2026 World Cup, which will be held in United States, Mexico and Canada, it will be Cristiano’s sixth and last, as the Portuguese forward himself acknowledged last November during a summit in Saudi Arabiawhere he plays for Al Nassr.
The World Cup is the main title missing in the extensive showcase of the former Real Madrid player, which includes a European Championship and two Nations Leagues with Portugal, in addition to five Champions Leagues and two Spanish Leagues.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup debut took place exactly two decades ago, in Germany 2006, when I was 21 years old. At that time, he occupied the left wing of the attack and was already one of the protagonists of a team in full generational renewal, with the imminent departure of figures such as Luís Figo or Pedro Pauleta.
Cristiano’s tears were still present in the Portuguese’s retinas after the defeat against Greece in the final of the 2004 Euro Cup organized by Portugal, so a response was expected on German soil, but the ‘quinas’ selection fell in the semifinals.
He started every game, scored a goal – from a penalty against Iran – and was involved in a controversy with his then Manchester United teammate, Wayne Rooney, by winking at a compatriot after the Englishman was sent off in the quarterfinals.
Then came South Africa 2010, where he already captained a Portugal team that fell in the round of 16 against the future champion, Spain. Cristiano scored a goal and gave an assist, both in the 7-0 victory against North Korea in the group stage. He was not without controversy either, since during the match against ‘La Roja’ he expressed his frustration towards the Portuguese coach, Carlos Queiroz.
“We don’t win that way, Carlos,” he told the television cameras after a substitution. In 2014 he experienced his worst World Cup on a sporting level, in Brazil, where Portugal did not advance from the group stage and only scored one goal.
However, in Russia 2018 he had his best performance on a personal level, with four goals, three of them in a single game in the group stage against Spain (3-3), in what was one of the great performances of his career.
But Portugal, then European champions, once again fell short of expectations when they were eliminated in the round of 16 by Uruguay. The most recent, Qatar 2022, was the most problematic for Cristiano Ronaldo, since he arrived at the tournament with his future in the air after a long conflict with Manchester United and coach Erik ten Hag.
Leaving the field before the end of a match, his departure from the team and his absence in the preseason marked Cristiano’s 2022 in England. In Qatar, he scored a goal from a penalty and had disagreements with the coach, Fernando Santos, when he was substituted during the match against South Korea in the group stage.
“You’re in a hurry to kick me out, damn!” Cristiano would have said to Santos. In the following games he went from being a starter to a substitute and left the field in tears when Portugal lost in the quarterfinals to Morocco.
Now, Cristiano Ronaldo will once again lead his team in a World Cup in which the team led by the Spanish Roberto Martínez starts as one of the candidates to win a trophy that resists both the country and its captain.